Appellant: Information relates to his personal property that was mortgaged to the Bank and that he is an Ex-Director/shareholder of the company - CIC: Appropriate response has not been furnished in respect of certain points; directed to provide the same
5 Jan, 2019O R D E R
1. The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), Punjab National Bank, Circle Office, New Delhi, seeking information on three points pertaining to his properties, Plot No. B-7, 37th Street, Nanganallur, Chennai (T.N.) and Flat No. C-401, 4th Floor, Elite Anmol Apartments, Indore (M.P.) mortgaged with Shalimar Bagh Branch by Nava Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., including, inter-alia,
(i) whether the above said properties have been released by the Bank, if so, date of release of the mortgage along with a copy of the supporting document, and
(ii) copies of all the correspondence exchanged between Nava Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. and its Directors and the Bank in respect of release of his mortgaged properties.
2. The appellant filed a second appeal before the Commission on the grounds that the CPIO has not provided the information sought for on point nos. II and III of his RTI application. He contended that the information sought relates to his personal property and that he is an Ex-Director/shareholder of the company. The appellant requested the Commission to provide him the desired information and to take necessary action against the CPIO.
Hearing:
3. The appellant Shri Srinivasan Janakiraman attended the hearing through video-conferencing. The respondent Shri D.D. Soni, AGM, Shri D.K. Gupta, Chief Manager and Shri R.K. Mathur, Sr. Manager (Law), Punjab National Bank, PNB Circle Office, North Delhi, New Delhi were present in person.
4. The appellant submitted that the CPIO has wrongly denied the information sought for by him vide point nos. II and III of the RTI application as the information relates to his personal property that was mortgaged to the Bank and that he is an Ex-Director/shareholder of the company. Moreover, the copies of the correspondence exchanged between Nava Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. and its Directors and the Bank in respect of release of his mortgaged properties were required by him to enable him to produce it before the Court.
5. The respondent submitted that point-wise information as per the available records has been provided to the appellant vide letter dated 06.12.2016. Moreover, the appellant was informed that the mortgaged properties were not released as on the date of the CPIO’s reply. The respondent further explained that the appellant was the guarantor to the loan sanctioned to Nava Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. However, the Bank has now released the above said properties.
Decision:
6. The Commission, after hearing the submissions of both the parties and perusing the records, observes that an appropriate response has not been furnished by the respondent to the appellant in respect of point nos. II and III of the RTI application. In view of this, the Commission directs the respondent to provide the information sought on the above said points to the appellant within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order under intimation to the Commission.
7. With the above observations, the appeal is disposed of.
8. Copy of the decision be provided free of cost to the parties.
Sudhir Bhargava
Information Commissioner
Citation: Srinivasan Janakiraman v. CPIO, Punjab National Bank in Second Appeal No. CIC/PNBNK/A/2017/157889, Date 03.12.2018